E-passport fees: Interior ministry rebuffs rumours

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Interior Ministry on Saturday rebuffed the rumors regarding the increase in machine-readable passport fees, ARY News reported.

In a statement, Interior Ministry spokesperson termed the reports of an increase in machine-readable passport fees ‘baseless’, saying that the government has not increased any fee.

Furthermore, the spokesperson said that the Immigration and Passport Department had recently fixed the fee for e-passports, while simple passport fees are the same as before.

It is pertinent to mention here that two weeks ago, the federal government issued the fee schedule for the issuance of e-passports in Pakistan.

As per the details, the fee schedule was issued for diplomatic, official, and ordinary categories.

Initially, the e-passports will be issued only from Islamabad. The date for the launching of the service from other cities of the country will be announced later.

The normal fee for normal 36 pages e-passport with 5-year validity is Rs9000 and urgent is Rs15000.

The normal fee for normal 36 pages e-passport with 10-year validity is Rs13,500 and urgent is Rs22,500.

The normal fee for normal 72 pages e-passport with 5-year validity is Rs16,500 and urgent is Rs27,500.

The normal fee for normal 72 pages e-passport with 10-year validity is Rs24,750 and the urgent is Rs40,500.